Raised Up

It was soda cans and pellet guns
Running through a briar patch, getting cut up
Same old jeans and they all tore up
'Cause 25/8, gotta get out of the slums
Sitting 'round a barrel while you watch a flame flicker
A highway's cool, but a dirt road's thicker
Hat to the back with a full tank of gas
Windows rolled down, foot heavy on the gas

And when a dirt road's calling my name
It's something that I just can't shake
Like riding down through the water
Ripples and the hollers
Blame it on the way I's raised

'Cause I was raised on handed-down land
I was brought up reading them words in red
A man only eats by the work he did
And you don't stop 'til the sun drops
Yeah, I was raised up like a bass out the creek
And my roots run deep like that old oak tree
A lot of things change, but you can't change me
No, it ain't much, but it's how I was raised up

Mama said, "Don't grow up fast
You're only young once, so make it last"
Like the last sip of whiskey in that flask
Or the last Marlboro in that pack
The fire only burns 'til you run out of gas
And the lights turn off and the clock turns past
Your time on Earth and now you're in the dirt
'Cause that's where you started first

I love the way that a porch swing sings
Like the sound of amazing grace
Like a bobber on the water
Or Sunday at the altar
Some things just don't change

'Cause I was raised on handed-down land
I was brought up reading them words in red
A man only eats by the work he did
And you don't stop 'til the sun drops
Yeah, I was raised up like a bass out the creek
And my roots run deep like that old oak tree
A lot of things change, but you can't change me
No, it ain't much, but it's how I was raised up

It was riding 'round town, Brooks & Dunn on the speakers
It was fishing in the woods and I was fighting with the skeeters
Sleeping on a Sunday morn', Mama come and woke me up
Told me if it's **** I want, then I'ma have to Git-R-Done

'Cause I was raised on handed-down land
I was brought up reading them words in red
A man only eats by the work he did
And you don't stop 'til the sun drops
Yeah, I was raised up like a bass out the creek
And my roots run deep like that old oak tree
A lot of things change, but you can't change me
No, it ain't much, but it's how I was raised up